The invention pertains to apparatuses for underwater salvage, and more specifically to harnesses for securing drums or the like which are employed to salvage sunken vessels by means of buoyancy.
Salvaging sunken vessels by attaching buoyant devices, such as air filled containers, thereto is well-known in the art. Specifically, U.S. Pat. No. 1,368,787 issued to Deoraff; U.S. Pat. No. 1,492,614 issued to Tworski; U.S. Pat. No. 3,019,754 issued to Welshausen; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,979,451 issued to Searle all disclose buoyant containers employed to salvage sunken objects. While the above patents generally disclose air filled containers employed in salvage operations, these patents do not provide a convenient means of attachment of the buoyant containers to the sunken object. Specifically, the Degraff patent requires extensive modification of a barrel to include U-guides so that cable can be strung therethrough in order to connect the barrel to the sunken vessel.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,358,884 issued to Link and U.S. Pat. No. 5,094,181 issued to Fuerst disclose other types of salvage devices in which buoyant objects are placed under a sunken or sinking craft.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 78,625 issued to Walker; U.S. Pat. No. 112,214 issued to Brewer; U.S. Pat. No. 2,707,846 issued to Besler; U.S. Pat. No. 3,042,441 issued to Jeffs, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,339,965 issued to Berns; U.S. Pat. No. 4,756,567 issued to Nilson and U.S. Pat. No. 4,832,391 issued to Moell all teach harnesses which are employed to lift non-buoyant containers or the like, as opposed to a harness which is employed to lift another object with a buoyant drum.
A need thus exists for an underwater salvage apparatus in which a buoyant drum is conveniently connectable by a harness to the object to be salvaged.
A need exists for the above type of underwater salvage apparatus in which no modification of the drum is required for the harness to be attached thereto.
A need also exists for the above type of underwater salvage apparatus in which a plurality of the harnessed drums can be connected to form an integral salvage unit.